A BIRKDALE law expert has dismissed fears that the mafia could be setting up base in Lancashire.

The police have been investigating whether men from Chorley and Preston are linked to the notorious Naples Camorra organisation.

In 2007 Gennaro Panzuto, 34, was arrested in Catterall, near Garstang, for attempted murder and extradited to Italy.

Chorley man Giuseppe Persico, 34, an associate of Panzuto, was arrested at Faro Airport in Portugal.

Franco Rizzuto, Edge Hill University head of law and criminology, has a specialist interest in the mafia and lectures on the subject as a module in the law degree course.

He became interested in the Mafia through studying and teaching European law and politics.

Mr Rizzuto said: “I don’t think this is something the people of West Lancashire should be unduly worried about.

“The police seem well-informed and forces across the European Union can exchange information of people involved in organised crime.

“The police are worried because there have been two incidents and you can get little pockets of activity like this. Officers should try to see if there is a pattern.

“Beyond that I would not say there’s any possibility that the Mafia is extending its operations to West Lancashire or the rest of the county.”

In his studies of the Mr Rizzuto has examined the conditions that make it possible for organisations such as the Camorra and the Sicilian and Calabrian Mafias to start.

He doesn’t believe these conditions exist in Lancashire.

Mr Rizzuto said: “The mafia and Camorra started in parts of Italy where the state was weak and didn’t protect citizens and property.

“Groups emerged to take on that role with a different set of rules, based around protection rackets and the violence that involves. It’s a complex phenomenon which is normally based on territory, and has become an unwanted part of the fabric of society.

“We don’t have the cultural links to Italy that the United States has. In terms of business the Mafia might go to an area where there are no Italians but the context would be totally alien to them so it is very unlikely.

“They might use it as a hideout but nothing else, but that doesn’t mean there’s a network here.”

Mr Rizzuto came to Edge Hill University in 1991 as head of European and Legal Studies having previously worked Hull University, the University of Ulster and the University of Wales in Cardiff.

Five years ago he led the team which started the university’s law degree. The course has come top of student satisfaction surveys in the North West for the last four years and was sixth in the country last year.

Born in Italy, Mr Rizzuto was raised in the Channel Islands and studied politics at Hull and law at Manchester.